William
Hargreaves (1880–1941)

William
Hargreaves  manager and first husband of the great male impersonator
and Music Hall star Ella Shields  wrote many big hits, including
Little Yellow Bird (with C.W. Murphy, 1903); and Victoria Monks’s
Give My Regards To Leicester Square and If You Want To Have
A Row Wait Till The Sun Shines (both 1906). Biggest of all his hits was Ella
Shields’ immortal Burlington Bertie From Bow (with credits
occasionally also attributed to Lawrence Wright, 1915).

Hargreaves also wrote several songs for Billy Williams, including Postcards
(1908); and I Must Go Home Tonight (1909), both of which some sources
have credited to Williams and Fred Godfrey. Hargreaves and Godfrey certainly
collaborated on The Death Of Rag-Time (1913) and Oh, The Baa-Baa-Baa-Lambs!
(1915).